


Fallout in The Cave

by blackrose_17



Series: Whumptober Time [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Gen, Good Older Sibling Jason Todd, Hurt Dick Grayson, Hurt Tim Drake, M/M, Mostly Focused on Fixing, Multi, Pairings aren't the focus, Protective Jason Todd, The Batbrothers Bond, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake-centric, Voice of Reason Jason
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:02:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29646189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackrose_17/pseuds/blackrose_17
Summary: Tim and Dick have a conversation. It opens old wounds and leaves them struggling to find a way back to one another.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Roy Harper/Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Series: Whumptober Time [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950940
Comments: 10
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for febuwhump prompt DAY 14: “I didn’t mean it”  
> I won't leave the boys like this. I am planning on writing a sequel fic that has all of them working out their issues and lots of Tim and bonding with his best friends.

_Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me._

Timothy Drake-Wayne remembered that old rhyme from when he was a child and it didn't take long for him to realize that was nothing but a lie. Names hurt and left as deep scars, they caused as much pain maybe even more as physical wounds did.

Every person had a breaking point and Tim had reached that point several times but this might just be the one that broke him.

Damian Wayne had made it clear from the moment he laid eyes on Tim that he was his enemy, one that he wouldn't stop until he eliminated from his life and removed him from this family.

Tim had been warm and welcoming to him, offering his hand only to have it slapped away just as he was spat on, verbally and emotionally abused by the boy he welcomed as a brother.

The boy who he and only he dared to set a boundary for Damian, with a simple we don't kill rule. Something that Tim noticed he was the only one who dared to do so only for Damian to step right over it. 

He could still feel the spikes of the glove as he was pushed off the dinosaur.

The snapping of his line.

Both times he felt fear grip him as he fell. There would be no one to catch him as he fell.

It hurt the wounds dug deep into his heart and left scars there to hear Dick, Bruce, Alfred and even Barbara and Stephanie had turned a blind eye to Damian's actions and treatment towards him. Tim couldn't understand why Damian still seemed to hate him so much and why no one would dare take the boy aside and explain to him that verbal, emotional and physical abuse was wrong and that they were family whether they were related by blood or not.

One thing that bothered Tim if Damian could go out as Robin shouldn't that mean he had a grasp of right and wrong so why did that fade when Tim was around him?

Tim knew that this place was no longer home and it was why he had made the hard choice but the right decision for himself to say goodbye.

"Timmy?"

Tim froze at the voice, the one which once would have filled him with comfort now filled him with a coldness that wrapped its icy grip around his heart.

Dick Grayson wondered how they had gotten to this point? He saw the barely there flinch but still there flinch, something that Tim would have never done before around him. He knows that things had changed between them since Damian came into their lives and he couldn't understand it sure Damian and Tim had their rough patches but it was no worse than Tim and Jason and look at them now they are friends.

_'Why can't Tim just give Damian a chance? Can't he see that he has changed?'_ A sigh escaped Dick as he ran his hand through his hair as he smiled, "Hey, Tim me and Damian are doing a movie night you should join us."

The last thing Tim wanted to do was to sit through a movie with Damian's barbs and Dick reprimanding him when he didn't just sit there and take them. "Thanks but unless you somehow magically got Damian to agree not to insult me for the night I think I will pass."

A frustrated sigh escaped Dick's mouth he couldn't understand why Tim wasn't being so unreasonable, "Tim, if you would just spend time with Damian you would see he has changed."

Tim shot Dick a disbelieving look, "That must have been some change since just this morning he was calling me a plague on the Wayne name and that I wasn't even worthy to even walk Titus." Tim spat out, bitterness filling him as he recalled how Dick just smiled fondly at Damian and stayed quiet as his favourite little brother insulted the replacement.

"You need to grow up Tim and start acting like the adult you are supposed to be. No wonder your parents never wanted to stay around you." The moments those words left Dick's mouth he knew he had crossed a line, "I didn't mean it."

Tim had thought Dick couldn't hurt him any more than he already had but it looks like he was wrong, "Yes you did. Somewhere deep in you, you meant that." Tears weld up in Tim's eyes coating them over in a sheen as he realized that their relationship was damaged and it would stay that way until Dick acknowledged why he had problems with Damian.

"I have loved you since the moment I met you at the circus. The fact that you gave me my first hug is something I treasured. I looked up to you before I learned you were Robin. You became my hero and when you trusted me to become Robin after Jason, I was so happy even though I had my doubts." Tim held up his hand when Dick looked to say something.

"Then when Damian came along I saw the truth I was just a stand-in brother for you. Because you treated Jason horribly I was your second chance. A second chance at being a brother but then Damian showed up and I realized that as much as you have a big heart and you talk about being a family when it comes to being a big brother you only have room in your life to have one brother at a time."

Dick felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. "Timmy, that is not true."

"Isn't it? You tossed me aside for Damian, you made me an outcast in the Superhero community and you still haven't stood up for me telling them how wrong they are! Hell, only Kon, Bart, Cass, Helena and Jason trust me. I hear the whispers that I am crazy, that I am not to be trusted and not one of my so-called family stands up for me! I tried to be a brother to Damian and if he isn't insulting me he is trying to kill me. Like the time he cut my line!" Tim roared.

Dick froze, _'No Tim has to be wrong. There is no way that Damian would do something like that.'_ He couldn't wrap his mind around what Tim was saying. "Damian wouldn't do something like that."

"But he did." Tim snarled out viciously, "Your beloved little brother cut my line. He wanted me to fall to my death and I would have if I hadn't saved myself." Tim took a dangerous step forward, reminding Dick that Tim had gone toe to toe with Ra and had earned his respect which wasn't something he gave out. "Tell me _Richard_ would you have mourned me or would you have done everything in your power to protect Damian?"

Ice filled Dick's veins at what Tim was saying and he wanted nothing more than to pull Tim into his arms and hug him. To get rid of the poison destroying their relationship, he took a step forward only to stop when Tim snarled at him. "No Timmy. I would never do that. I didn't know that Damian had done that. I swear I would have talked to him if I had known." To hear the truth that Damian had cut Tim's line that he nearly lost another loved one the way he had lost his parents sent him back to that terrible night all those years ago.

"There was a time I would have believed you." Tim's words were soft, lacking the vicious rage that his others had and somehow they hurt Dick the most.

"I can't lose you too." Dick pleaded and he meant every word he needed Tim in his life.

"You already did." Letting out a broken sob Tim steeled himself, "Until you can come to terms that while Damian has led a tough life it doesn't give him the right to treat me the way he does I think it would be wise for me to stay with the Titans."

Dick wanted to do something to say anything to keep Tim here but he couldn't. He could only watch as Tim walked away from him.

His world suddenly felt a whole lot colder.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to turn this one-shot into a chaptered story. It won't be a long one. This one features the voice of reason Jason, I had a lot of fun writing him.   
> DAY 10: “I'm sorry. I didn’t know”

Damian Wayne was getting annoyed. There was something wrong with Grayson. He had been that way since the useless one last visit.

A huff escaped Damian, he couldn't understand Grayson's fondness for _Drake_ not when he, the blood son of Batman and the rightful heir to Robin was here.

It had taken a while but at long last Drake understood that he had no place here, that he wasn't wanted or needed.

Dick could feel Damian's eyes on him and he knew that his little brother sensed something was bothering him. He just didn't know how to bring the subject up to Damian, he didn't want to believe it that Damian, his Robin had cut Tim's line.

Normally silence didn't bother Damian but this was a different kind and it was slowly suffocating him. _'If Richard doesn't plan on breaking it then it looks like it is up to me.'_

"Did you do it?"

Dick's voice was low and soft but there was no missing the hope and terror mixed in it.

"Stop speaking nonsense, Grayson. Did I do what?" Damian snapped out.

"Cut Tim's line," Dick asked, there was a pleading look in his gaze to tell him that he was wrong.

Damian had no clue why Grayson was bringing that up now, "Tt, I don't know why you are asking that now but if you must know yes I did. It is a shame he caught himself." The sound that Grayson reminded Damian of a wounded animal.

"Why? Why did you do it, Damian?" Dick knew that there wasn't anything that Damian could say in justifying cutting Tim's line but he needed to hear Damian's reasoning.

Putting aside his sketchbook Damian crossed his arms and met his older brother's gaze. "I do not see why it matters as you have not cared about my attempts on the unwanted before."

Dick flinched at that reminder.

"But if you must know yes I did cut Drake's line, it was after he placed me on his hit list. If he was going to try and take me out then I would remind him of not only his place but why it was never wise to mess with an Al Ghul and the blood son of Batman." Damian wanted to scoff to think that Drake thought he could take on him and beat him.

"Oh god." Dick sounded horrified and looked ready to burst into tears at any moment.

Confusion filled Damian as he watched Richard run from the room.

"Damn when you and Dickie mess up, you really mess up."

Damian tensed as he turned to see Jason Todd leaning against the balcony doors that neither he nor Richard heard open. "What do you want Todd?" Damian demanded shoving his desire to go chase after Richard, an Al Ghul never chased after anyone.

Taking a step into the room Jason stole a handful of cookies that Alfred had baked, one of the few reasons that he came around before making himself at home on the couch that Dick had been sitting on. Damian refused to shiver as Jason's green eyes bored into his.

"Dickie parents were killed by someone cutting their line. He saw them fall to their deaths."

Damian froze at Jason's response. He didn't know how Richard had come into his father's care and it hadn't mattered to him, all he knew was that Richard had been the first to stand at his father's side and become the first sidekick that led to other heroes. He would never say it out loud but he looked up to the man who he saw as his older brother.

To learn that he could have hurt Richard in such a way just to get back at Drake was unthinkable. He needed to go see Richard and explain that he didn't know.

"Before you go running after Dickie you need to stop and think." Jason's voice broke through Damian's plans.

"And what is that supposed to mean Todd?" Damian demanded he didn't even know why he was sitting here instead of seeking out Richard, except for the fact that he did respect Todd, not that he would ever tell him that. Todd had died in the cape that was honourable.

Taking a bite out of the chocolate chip cookie Jason studied Damian, "I mean that you and I both have messed up when it comes to Tim and our actions have damaged his relationship with Dick and Bruce. I tried to kill him as you have. And while in the past I had no issues in making Tim my emotional, verbal and physical punching bag I have reached out and made amends with him. Something you haven't done." Jason held up his hand to stop Damian from speaking, "I get it kid the league messed you up as they did me. Your mother has a real hatred of Timmy and she gleefully used us as her weapons in driving him out of this family."

Sitting up Jason turned serious, "Here's the thing kid your mom no doubt knows in your last attempt at killing Timbit just happened to be the way that Dick's parents died because Dick is your link to the family, not Bruce, don't deny it. And if she wanted you back all she had to do was use that knowledge to break Dick."

Damian wanted to deny it but he knew that his mother would do something like that if she wanted him back, "I didn't know. I truly didn't mean to hurt Richard in such a way."

"But not Tim."

Jason's words cut Damian to the core, he didn't and at one time he would have gloated about not caring about Drake's feelings but seeing the wounded look in Richard's eyes cut him deeply.

"Kid until you can tell Dick and Tim you are sorry for your actions, for hurting Dick in making him almost lose another loved one in the way that still gives him nightmares and accept that Tim has a place in this family, your apologizes are only going to seem like empty words and that will fix nothing. You are still thinking like an Al Ghul and not the Wayne you want to be. Not the little brother of Richard Grayson you want to be. And until then the bonds in this family will stay broken."

"What can I do?" Damian couldn't believe that he was asking Todd of all people for advice.

A sigh escaped Jason as he ran a hand through his hair, "You're going to have to talk to Tim which is going to be hard because he is with the Titians and Cass decided to tag along."

Damian glared at the amusement in Jason's tone, the last thing he wanted to do was talk to Drake with his friends around and worse he didn't want to have to deal with Cassandra's disappointed look. "I shall take your advice."

Watching him leave Jason picked up another handful of cookies, "Fuck when did I become the voice of reason in this messed-up family?"


End file.
